Claiming Home
by starneko
Summary: AU. Humans, Hanyou and Yokai alike are trapped between different ruling factions that leave them fighting to survive. A group of wandering priests work protect as many people as they can. Allen, a cursed nekotama, is separated from his master and is taken in by the priests as part of a motley crew of misfits. He finds a place called home and someone to love. Yullen
1. Chapter 1

**0. Carry me Away**

When you're running for your life little things don't matter anymore. Like where to eat lunch at, recovering stolen possessions, or getting lost. Well that should matter but if it saves your skin then time to embrace it and poor Allen was embracing it.

The nekomata was use to being lost now. Since he began traveling alone he could claim a perpetual state of being lost. The only good thing that he found about traveling with his now missing master Marian Cross was that he didn't get lost. Now he was not just lost but fucked.

With Cross was gone just showing his face in most villages can be a life or death situation. Just ignoring the fact that he's considered an unlucky demon to some, his appearance didn't help with the superstitious villagers. His white hair and silver eyes made him noticeable in any crowd. It was the dark red slash on his left eye and inverted pentacle that caused the most chaos. At least with his arm he could hide this but his face was almost impossible to disguise.

It just took one look at his face and suddenly he's being chased by a lynch mob. To make matters worse the mob managed to grab his cloak and scarf which covered his ears and everything went to hell. He was often blamed for the misfortune of others, so he wasn't surprised by their reaction, just exhausted by it. Running for one's life did that.

He managed to shake his pursuers in the maze of alleyways with a few minor injuries but he was lost. "Did I pass that hut twice?" he asked himself as he got turned around in the narrow alleyways. Allen could hear the river on the border of the village but managed to go in circles instead. Looking at the hut he thought he saw a green butterfly flitting by. Taking that as a sign he dashed in that direction. Beyond that he found the bridge.

Allen had learned to be fast on his feet so he knew he could make a mad dash for safety. Even the rock throwing mob wouldn't catch him once he hit the forest beyond. However the moment he stepped on the bridge he realized that the unguarded exit had been a trap. After a sharp disorienting sting and a rush of air, Allen found himself dangling in the air over the side of the bridge in a net made of fish line. The material had been so thin he missed it in the shadows. Unfortunately it was also strong enough to hold him as he struggled.

Demon hunters had lay in wait. He didn't know where they come from or how they got here ahead of him, but he would bet he was not the prey they were expecting from the looks on their faces. "What do we have here?" One with golden eyes and dark curly hair said pulling the net to him with a leer. "This was not the little fish we expected to catch."

"What is it?" the larger one asked as he shoved a piece of candy in his mouth.

"Oh, a cute kitty boy!" A spiky haired girl exclaimed. "Can I keep him uncle Tikki?" The looks she cast at Allen made him squirm more. This caused him to hiss as the net dug into his wounds. The worst part of it was the unmistakable dart he found protruding from his shoulder. It looked like a tranquilizer dart which gave him barely a few minutes to find away out of the net.

"I don't know." Tikki eyed Allen closely. Whatever the hunter was about to say however was interrupted by the approaching mob.

"Oh hunters, thank you for catching that demon." One of the men stepped forward as the others held back. "We have been plagued by misfortune recently."

"And you believe this creature the cause of it?" Tikki asked the mob.

"No but its blood will protect us from further harm."

At this the three hunters had to laugh. "That silly old wives tale never works," The younger laughed.

"That thing needs to die!" one of the men in the mob yelled. "It's a yokai and cursed to on top of that. Getting rid of any such creature is bound to bring us good fortune." The rest of the mob loudly agreed as the hunters appeared to be contemplating this.

Allen didn't want any of them to go down the path that that suggestion took them but knew even trying to defend himself would cause further trouble but he was about desperate enough to plead his way out. His vision was already starting to fog up as seconds ticked by.

It was that moment as the mob lobbied the hunters further to turn him over to them that he saw the green butterfly again. It was flitting around the rope that the net hung from bringing his attention to a frayed area above the knots. Acting on instinct Allen bared his sharp claws at the rope and managed to quickly sever it.

Unfortunately he was still being held over the railing on the bridge when gravity kicked in. He tumbled over into the water. The tranquilizer along with the bridge railing had done their job. He was no longer conscious as the swift current carried him away.

**1. Drowned... cat**

"Yuu! We shouldn't be here." Alma actually tried to whisper that but it came out as one of those loud whispers that can be heard from far away. "Yuu…" he was whining it also, which made him even louder and annoying as he jerked at the other's sleeve.

"Shut it." Kanda growled quietly jerking out of the offending grip. If it had been anyone besides Alma he'd have pulled his sword out and threatened them. Alma and Lenalee were the only ones in the group he wouldn't threaten. Lenalee, because well her brother's crazy, and Alma well that's his brother and only blood relative left.

"Yuu," Alma ignored him, but he always does. Lavi and Alma were the only one's that actually called him by his first name. Alma was there when he was born, and he very well couldn't forbid family from the name even though it irritated the hell out of him. Lavi, well that idiot was just persistent and didn't listen to him no matter how many near death experiences he's had with Kanda. "We should go back to the campsite."

Normally Alma was never this paranoid to enjoy the nice day by the river. Fishing was fast becoming useless if he couldn't calm down. Alma always had a childish nature despite being the older brother. Like many Hanyou he had extra gifts. Gifts that varied from individual to individual, Alma's was the ability to tell when something important was about to happen. The others believed that Alma tried run from his gift instead of using it, but it was more a survival instinct. Because important can include life threatening.

They usually didn't get this close to the villages in the area because many of them harboring too many enemies. In many cases whole villages will attack anyone they associate with Yokai. Kanda and Alma had cat ears and tales that gave them away as being related to the bakeneko clans. Both of them could hide them temporarily. Their other traveling companions, the old scribe Bookman, his apprentice Lavi, Lenalee another hanyou, and the blind priest Noise Marie did not have the same problems.

Kanda's outburst had only stopped Alma's fidgeting for a few moments. "Yuu…"

"Damn it, if you can't keep it down and sit still then go back to camp." Kanda growled at his brother. "I'm trying to get…" Kanda had to stop as he caught the scent of another demon and hunters nearby.

"Yuu?" Alma jerked at Kanda's sleeve as he pointed at something white in the water. "There is some thing there." The strong odor of blood assaulted their noses as they moved closer to what looked like a white mass.

"Go back." Kanda pushed Alma away as he drew his sword. Upon closer inspection he found a white haired nekomata. Its scent identified it as a male, age wise it couldn't be much younger then them. If Kanda hadn't known that nekomata often looked younger then they were he would have thought him barely a teenager.

"He's been hurt." Alma said rushing to the creature's side.

"Baka, don't touch it." Kanda swore as he watched Alma drag the small Yokai out of the water. It looked like it had been in a fight and got caught in a net. At this point arguing with Alma was useless, once he got something in his head he didn't get it out. So Kanda could only watch as Alma cut the net off the pathetic looking creature. He almost doubted it was still alive until he saw the shallow rise and fall of his chest. It was when Kanda saw the curse mark that he jumped into action lifting his katana to slice open the unconscious cat boy. "Move!" he ordered. "I'm going to kill it."

"Yuu! No you can't. "Alma protested."He's defenseless."

"Oh so you want to wait till he's ready to slit our throats to decide it's dangerous?"

"He looks like a child. You can't go around assuming just because he's full blooded Yokai that he's dangerous." Alma refused to move and the subject of their debate was oblivious to just how close he was to death at the hands of the eternally grouchy hanyou.

"How many times do you have to be told looks are deceiving? There's a reason it's half dead in the river with a cursed eye." Kanda hissed.

"Yeah and the reason doesn't always mean he's the dangerous one." Alma countered.

"Seriously," Kanda growled out in frustration, "sometimes I wonder if a baka like you can even learn. Where have you been all these years?"

"Yuu please," Alma had resorted to the kicked puppy look to get his way. He understood his Kanda's reaction since they've faced danger all their life but Alma wanted to trust his own instinct and this creature was not what they should be worrying about.

Distant sounds interrupted any further debate. The scent of the hunters that owned the net got stronger. Kanda stopped arguing as he helped Alma pull the nekomata from the net and duck into the nearby shrubbery. All they could do now was to hope these weren't the enhanced hunters who could sniff them out.

On the opposite bank the spotted three figures in black. A girl that looked no older the twelve, a large burly man with spiky hair and another man that appeared to be wearing a suit that was out of place at the riverside. "Aww, I think we lost kitty boy." the girl whined.

"Hmm maybe." the gentleman agreed. "Are you sure the nets here?" the larger man just grunted in response. He apparently was preoccupied with a sucker.

"Hmm the twins will be sad we lost him." the girl commented casually as she appeared to be looking deeply into the river.

"The twins?" the gentleman gave her a confused look. "Isn't it the Earl who wants the priest and his apprentice?"

"Oh he'll be upset also but the twins more so right now." she grinned at him mischievously. "Cross skipped out of town leaving his debts in their name when they tried to catch him." at this she giggled as if it was a great joke.

The gentleman looked disturbed. "Wow that's harsh."

"Yeah imagine having to pay your enemy's bills."

"I'd rather not." anyway let's go. We'll have to report that we lost the target."

"Tikki do you think he's dead?"

"I doubt it. He is the apprentice of the most tenacious priest around. How that guy became a priest is beyond me. "

"Let's get something sweet. " the large guy interrupted as the walked away. Kanda and Alma ignored the rest of what the hunters had to say. Alma gave him a look that told Kanda that if they left the cat boy now he'd be in trouble.

"Che" Kanda spit out before hoisting the nekotama over his shoulder. "Hopefully Marie or Bookman had better luck getting us dinner." He grumbled shooting Alma a dirty look. Alma on the other hand smiled happily and bounced ahead to the camp site.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note:**So I have part two and three here. I'm working on the next two. This one has been done a while but it's been giving me problems. I was having problems with dealing with so many speaks in a group conversation.

I do want to say thank you so much for all the favorites, follows and reviews I got from chapter 1.

2. Disturbance

"Lavi," Lenalee called to the flamboyant redhead as he made his way down the trail. He looked up as the girl called and quickly masked a look of relief as he looked around before stepping into the under brush away from the only path that lead to civilization.

"Hey Lenalady." He greeted her quite subdued for his exuberant personality so she could guess trouble was nearby. "There was a disturbance in town. We need to get back to the campsite and move out soon."

"Is that why you are coming back empty handed?"She noted as they carefully covered their tracks path before heading deeper into the forest area. "What happened to your contact?"

"Busy, everyone was in an uproar. There was a Yokai and some hunters." He sighed.

"Hunters, huh?" she asked with an amused twinkle in her eye.

Lavi just grinned brightly back at her, "I'll go over it all once we get everyone together."

"Not going to tell I see, well it may take a while. Marie just came back and we're still waiting on Kanda and Alma."

"Where did Yuu-chan go off to?"

"They went fishing." Lenalee could tell Lavi was trying very hard to keep a subdued response to this.

"Fishing eh, well hopefully Marie was successful." He grinned.

"Lavi." She admonished him.

"What? Yuu-chan can fish by himself, but with Alma…" He let the statement go as they approached the campsite. From the opposite direction they saw Kanda and Alma arriving with something or someone white over Kanda's shoulder.

"Yuu-chan!" Lavi called abandoning his prior caution. Lenalee was sure if Kanda hadn't been carrying someone right that moment he'd be trying to kill Lavi. "Find you somebody special?" Lavi asked making the already irate Hanyou livid.

"Baka Usagi I will kill you." Kanda growled practically throwing the limp person at Noise before going for his sword.

"Kanda, Lavi, please not now." Lenalee groaned before ignoring the two in favor of checking who the brothers brought into camp. "Who is he Alma?" she asked as the rest of the group inspected the new person.

He looked like a young boy in almost solid white clothes and hair. Well they may have been white before someone decided to drag the poor boy through the mud. The clothes reminded them of the outfits that the order had the novices wear before they were deemed ready to follow a priest.

"He washed up on the shore." Alma said helping the blind priest settle the boy onto one of the sleeping palettes. "Some hunters were chasing him." She noted that he was almost protective of the new arrival as he fussed with trying to clean him up.

"He's a yokai." Bookman announced examining one of the boys limp tails. That's when she noticed that he had two.

"Oh, a nekotama!" Lavi exuberantly supplied.

"Yeah, baka here refused to leave it." Kanda huffed as he sat down.

"Aww Yuu-chan you did find a…" Lavi was quickly interrupted.

"Finish that sentence and I will skin you alive." Kanda growled as he held him at sword point.

"It is dangerous to bring any Yokai here without knowing anything about them."Bookman said ignoring his apprentice and the hanyou. He was closely examining something in his hand before leveling Alma with a serious gaze. "Even a young one such as this can be deadly."

"But hunters were after him Bookman. They had him in a net." Alma's kicked puppy face would never work on the old man but it never stopped him from trying.

"Hunters?" Lavi asked perking up. "Did you see them?"

"They were the Earl's." Kanda supplied. "We saw them on the other side of the river looking for it." He gestured quickly at the still sleeping cat boy. Alma made an unhappy face at the statement but didn't say anything.

"Did you hear anything?" Marie asked.

"They were talking about the earl wanting Cross and his apprentice." Alma supplied.

"Could these be the same hunters you saw in town, Lavi?" Lenalee wondered.

With this almost everyone in the tent gave Lavi their attention. "I would say so. I saw a mob confronting them at the bridge, but I didn't get that close. They had something white looking in a net. So I have to guess that, was our little neko-chan here." Bookman narrowed his eyes at Lavi as if he expected that the redhead was leaving something out.

"Did see your friend?" Marie asked the same question that Lenalee had asked earlier.

"Nope," Lavi could only give them a lopsided grin. "Mob got in the way."

"I bet." Bookman hummed as he gave his apprentice another suspicious look, but changed the subject anyway. "Marie got a message from the Order while you were off playing."

The others ignored Lavi's sounds of protest to focus on the blind Priest. "A message was sent to Komui to have someone pick up an important package from an order member."

"Did sister-complex say who or where we're supposed to meet?" Kanda huffed. None of them wanted to stay in the area anymore. There were too many signs of unrest and rumors of disappearing people."

"He said that we'd be left a sign."

3. Waking up

When awareness came to Allen, he didn't know where he was. Just that something soft had been shoved under his head, which helped with the pounding headache. There was noise not too far away that sounded like a conversation. In the moments that it took him to identify the noise as voices the memories of what occurred earlier came rushing back. The hunters.

In fear of being captured he bolted upright surprising everyone around him. This of course had been a bad idea due to the massive headache and nausea that overwhelmed him. "You have a concussion." One of the voices told him. "You might not want to do that." It was human.

The voice wasn't what startled him the most, but the proximity. The human was too close. In Allen's delirious mind all he could remember was the mob and what they wanted to do to him.

Instinct had him backing up across the room before he even could see his surroundings clearly. He first backed into another human and then straight into something hard. Before Allen knew what was happening he fell over backwards and box fell onto his already sore head making spots dance before his eyes.

"Oi! Don't tear things up!" A gruff voice yelled at him. Unable to escape and dearly holding on to what ever consciousness he'd gained Allen just whimpered slightly in response.

"Yuu! You're scaring him." Another voice interrupted. Now Allen could see who was around him. There were two dark haired Hanyou, a one eyed red head, a large dark man with headphones and an old man with dark circles around his eyes. From beyond them he saw another Hanyou, a young girl with long dark green hair. His sluggish nose told him none of their scents were familiar, but that was not a comforting fact.

"We're not going to hurt you." One of the Hanyou said approaching him trying to make calming gestures. He was a Bakeneko with a short messy hair and a small scar across his nose. "We're with the Or-"

He was quickly interrupted and shoved aside from the long haired hanyou. They had a familial smell but Allen's sluggish brain was not catching up to what that meant. "We need to find out why those bastards are after it, not make friends." A sword was shoved into Allen's face.

"Stop it Yuu!" The other one shoved the sword wielder aside. "Threatening him isn't going to help."

"Kanda, Please calm down," The old man interrupted the beginnings of an argument. He only received a soft 'che' in response before the hanyou stalked to the other side of the tent. "I am Bookman." The old man said addressing Allen. "That was Kanda and this is his brother Alma." He said indicating the other bakeneko that was now trying to pick Allen up off the floor. "The red headed idiot is my apprentice Lavi, Lenalee and finally Noise Marie." He finished off pointing to each individual. "Now who are you?"

"Allen Walker." He was unsteady on his feet as Alma helped him back to the sleeping palette he had been on before. He didn't think he could bolt yet so Allen decided to wait till at least the drugs had worn off. They had hanyou in their group so they were at least safer then the human mob or the hunters.

"So tell us young one," The elderly man asked, "How did you manage to get one of these?" He held up a gold cross pendant with many rays between the beams. Someone gasped at the cross, probably Lenalee it sounded female. Alma visibly stiffened beside Allen before backing up a step. From the various reactions Allen figured the old man hadn't shown them the cross.

"Master's Rose cross," Allen tried grab the object, but was unable to do more the lurch to the side. The tranquilizer was seriously hampering his reflexes.

"Don't get up." The older man said this time pushing Allen back before handing him the pendant. "Now who is your master?"

Allen held the necklace close relieved that he still had it. His master Cross had given it to him promising extreme pain if he ever lost it. "Marion Cross." He answered automatically not even pausing to think if giving out the information was a good idea or not.

"Do you know the significance of this cross?" The old man prodded again for more information.

Allen looked at the old man suspiciously. "If I may say sir, I have to ask you that same question." Allen honestly knew very little of the cross and what it represented, but he knew that it represented a secret that he wasn't at liberty to give out to just anyone. The old man cocked an eyebrow at Allen's response and someone else in the room snickered. Allen just met them with a level gaze waiting for an answer.

Bookman muttered something about 'Cocky brats' before pulling out a gold cross of his own and waving it before Allen. At this the younger appeared to soften. "Master Cross told me about the Order before he disappeared." Allen finally admitted. "I know that we were suppose to travel there together. They would…" Allen appeared to struggle with his next word. "He was training me as an apprentice."

"No!" Kanda interrupted anything Allen was about to say. "We're not taking this thing to the Order with us!" He growled. "It's bad enough that we're dealing with a cursed yokai, but now it's involved with that pervert. Probably got left behind on purpose."

"Now you look here. I didn't bring myself to your tent, someone else did." Allen growled back. "I may be cursed, but Master Cross didn't abandon me! He left me with an important case we are suppose to take to the order." With each word Allen slowed down as realization dawned on him. Cross did abandon him.

"Heh, poor kid." Lavi said throwing an arm over Allen's shoulder startling the younger. "It's okay he just probably didn't want to go to the order, and just left the case here for you to meet us."

"Che, I still think it's a trap to take in the Moyashi." As dismissive as Kanda's tone was, he lost his aggressive edge. This didn't make Allen happy and he looked like he was about to argue.

"Lavi's right, Kanda. Cross was never like making appearances at the order. The message Komui sent didn't say it was from Cross, but it did say we'd see a sign." Marie said interrupting any more possible protest. "So where is that important case?"

"Case?" Allen momentarily looked confused, before panic broke out on his face. "Oh my good the case!" he yelled jumping up before falling again. "I have to go back to town!"

"That would not be wise with hunters wandering around." Bookman counseled, many of the others nodded in agreement.

"They're probably still looking for you, and the townsfolk will kill you on sight." Alma looked worried at the thought of going into town.

"I have to go. I hid the case in our room before I went to look for Master."

"Marie and I can go." Lavi offered.

"Master's Allies won't let you in. Not without me or the Master." Allen countered.

"Even with proof we're from the order." Lenalee asked from her quiet corner.

"They don't support the order." Allen replied giving the girl a level gaze. "Their business is not exactly what you call among a religious order's acceptable practice."

"So it's a brothel." Bookman guessed.

"Let's go to the Brothel!" Lavi cheered while Kanda swore.


End file.
